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TerraDrive Universe:Policies and guidelines
The TerraDrive Universe is in a perpetually ongoing process of developing a body of policies and guidelines which have helped us to work toward our goal of creating a (successful) free resource for your use and enjoyment. While we strive to build consensus, the TerraDrive Universe is not a democracy, and its governance can be inconsistent. Hence there is disagreement between those who believe rules should be explicitly stated and those who feel that written rules are inherently inadequate to cover every possible variation of problematic or disruptive behavior. In either case, a user who acts against the spirit of our written policies may be reprimanded, even if technically no rule has been violated. However those who edit in good faith, show civility, seek consensus, and work towards the goal of creating a great resource should find a welcoming environment. The TerraDrive Universe greatly appreciates additions that help all people. Key policies You don't need to read any TDU policies before you contribute. However, the following policies are particularly important to the project, and the sooner you understand and use them, the better: # The TerraDrive Universe works by building consensus. Consensus is an inherent part of the wiki process. (See TerraDrive Universe:Consensus) # Respect other contributors. TerraDrive Universe contributors come from many different backgrounds and have widely different views and ideas. Treating others with respect is key to collaborating effectively. (See TerraDrive Universe:Civility, TerraDrive Universe:Etiquette, TerraDrive Universe:Resolving disputes.) # Respect copyrights. The TerraDrive Universe is a free resource licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons License from Technomancer Press, LLC. Submitting work which infringes copyrights threatens our objective to build a truly free resource that anyone can redistribute, and could lead to legal problems. (See TerraDrive Universe:Copyright.) Other concise summaries of key policies One of these concise versions of the TDU guidelines should get you familiar with the important policies. Here's the recommended reading order: #'The four cornerstones of the TerraDrive Universe': a quick rundown of the 4''' key rules you need to start editing. Don't worry, it's easy. #Simplified ruleset: '''11 rules of thumb to help you avoid problems. Every policy and guideline is listed in one of the following categories: * Category:TDU official policy: policies that are widely accepted and/or legally necessary and that everyone is expected to follow. * Category:TDU guidelines: less rigid rules of thumb that are generally accepted by consensus to apply in many cases. Procedural questions How are policies started? Policy change now comes from three sources: * The codification of current convention and common practice which already have wide consensus. These are proposals that document the way the TerraDrive Universe works. Of course, a single user cannot dictate what common practice is, but writing down the common results of a well-used process is a good way of making policy. The easiest way to change policy is to change common practice first. * A policy being adopted after having first been proposed on a wiki page, without first being applied in practice. (See TerraDrive Universe:How to create policy). However, such proposals had a ~90% likelihood of failure, and this method is now mostly of historical interest. *: Currently proposed and previously rejected policies can be found in these categories: ** Category:TDU proposals: ideas for new policies. ** Category:TDU rejected proposals: rejected or abandoned ideas for policies. * Declarations from Tony Hellmann particularly for copyright, legal issues, or server load. The differences between policies, guidelines, essays, etc. Many pages in the TDU namespace fall in one of the following groups. However, this is not a strict classification; it is not problematic if a page is not in any of these groups, and indeed many pages in the namespace aren't. It is important to note that this classification does not form a hierarchy between which pages can be "promoted" or "demoted". For instance, there exists no process by which you can "turn" a guideline into an essay. *A guideline is any page that is: (1) actionable (i.e. it recommends, or recommends against, an action to be taken by editors) and (2) authorized by consensus. Guidelines are not set in stone and should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception. Amendments to a guideline should be discussed on its talk page, not on a new page — although it's generally acceptable to edit a guideline to improve it. Disputes over the wording of a guideline are resolved by considering and discussing objections and counter-proposals and coming to agreement, often using compromise language; such a dispute does not "suspend" the guideline or "turn it into" something other than a guideline. People are sometimes tempted to call a vote on a guideline, but this is a bad idea because it the issue. *A policy is similar to a guideline, only more official and less likely to have exceptions. As with guidelines, amendments should generally be discussed on their talk pages, but are sometimes forked out if large in scope. One should not generally edit policy without seeking consensus first. *A process is a central and organized way of doing things, generally following certain policies or guidelines (e.g. the "deletion policy" tells us how the "deletion process" works) *A proposal is any suggested guideline, policy or process for which the status of consensus is not yet clear, as long as discussion is ongoing. Amendments to a proposal should be discussed on its talk page (not on a new page) but it generally is acceptable to edit a proposal to improve it. Proposals should be advertised to solicit feedback and to reach a consensus. A proposal's status is not determined by counting votes. Polling is not a substitute for discussion, nor is a poll's numerical outcome tantamount to consensus. **A historical page is any proposal for which consensus is unclear, where discussion has died out for whatever reason. Historical pages also include any process no longer in use, or any non-recent log of any process. Historical pages can be revived by advertising them. **A rejected page is any proposal for which consensus support is not present, regardless of whether there is active discussion or not. Consensus need not be fully opposed; if consensus is neutral on the issue and unlikely to improve, the proposal is likewise rejected. It is considered bad form to hide this fact, e.g. by removing the tag. Making small changes will not change this fact, nor will repetitive arguments. Generally it is wiser to rewrite a rejected proposal from scratch and start in a different direction. *An essay is a page representing the opinions of one or more editors. Essays do not carry any authority, and editors are not obliged to follow their advice (if any) except where they overlap existing policy. (Essays that represent a consensus view, however, will typically be upheld.) Essays need not be proposed or advertised; you can simply write them, as long as you understand that you do not generally speak for the entire community. If you do not want other people to reword your essay, put it in your userspace. How are policies enforced? You are a TDU editor/developer. Since the TerraDrive Universe has no editor-in-chief or top-down article approval mechanism, active participants write new content and make edits and corrections to the format and content problems they see. So the participants are both writers and editors. Individual users thus enforce most policies and guidelines by editing pages, and discussing matters with each other. Some policies, such as Vandalism, are enforced by moderators by blocking users. Some features of the software which could potentially be misused, such as deleting pages and locking pages from editing, are restricted to moderators, who are experienced and trusted members of the community. See also * TerraDrive Universe:Broadcast(policy), discussion of existing and proposed policies * TerraDrive Universe:Broadcast(proposals), discussion of new ideas and proposals not policy related * TerraDrive Universe:Requests for comment/Policies, listing of proposed policies and proposed changes to policies through TDU:Broadcast(requests for comment) * TerraDrive Universe:Ignore all rules * Category:TDU policies and guidelines lists approved, rejected, and proposed policies. * TerraDrive Universe:How to create policy - instructions on how policies and guidelines are to be created and modified